The mother and grandmother of an Abergavenny teenager killed in a road crash a year ago have accused the county council’s highways team of ‘trashing’ his roadside memorial in their efforts to remove it.

They claim festive mementoes such as figurines of snowmen and Father Christmas were smashed and a branch decorated with ribbons torn from the tree, and they’re angry that no-one warned them the site was going to be cleared - or explained why.

But Monmouthshire County Council’s highways department say that, because the number of items appearing at the site on the B4598 was increasing every day, they had to take urgent action for the safety of passing motorists and to prevent also people parking there to leave personal tributes.

Nineteen-year-old Jordan ‘Bell’ Thomas and another man, Lee Fox, died in a two-car crash near Penpergwm on January 8. A man facing charges of causing death by dangerous driving goes on trial at Newport Crown Court next month.

Jordan’s grandmother Robina Radnor, who visits the site regularly, said a board where people had been pinning messages and small Christmas mementoes had been torn from the tree and a plaque with the words ‘Dear Grandson, Nothing is more precious than our memory of you’ had been broken.

“We’ve always put something at the spot where he died - flowers, a cross, a photograph. A little boy who was with him before the accident had planted a small tree there with a guardian angel attached. At this time of year there were a lot of small Christmas items too, left by friends and family. It’s all been taken away.

“We’re told there was too much there - but it was only for Christmas. We put things up at Easter then took them down again. Nothing was said until now. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have at least given us a week to remove things ourselves.”

Jordan’s mum Michaela Thomas said she was devastated when she found out what had happened.

“It was such a mess - broken figures strewn around and bits of his photo left on the ground. They’d shown no respect at all. I asked the man at the depot how he’d have felt if it was HIS son.”

She said she couldn’t see how it was a safety issue when the board where visitors were pinning their mementoes was attached to the tree on the bank, well back from the road.

“I’m absolutely disgusted. We weren’t going to have much of a Christmas anyway but this has totally ruined it.”

Paul Keeble, MCC’s Group Engineer for Highways, said, “After an incident such as a fatal accident we try to deal with the situation sensitively, allowing relatives for example to place flowers at the site safely, in the company of a police or highways officer wearing high visibility clothes and with a vehicle with flashing lights - and we would let the tributes remain for a few weeks.

“But we’d then arrange for the family to collect them or retrieve them from us.

“In this particular case the items had been increasing day by day and we’d received several complaints.

“With people parking at the side of the road and the memorial itself being a distraction to passing motorists there was a real safety concern and when we heard that Christmas lights had been placed there it was the last straw.

“We were not happy about asking the family to remove the items themselves because we thought they would be putting themselves at risk parking there. The plan was to take it all to the depot for the family to collect.

“I’m aware the family are upset. I certainly wouldn’t condone the items being removed in a heavy-handed way but I spoke to the highways officer in charge and I am satisfied that it was done as carefully as possible, with the correct procedures followed - such as placing cones on the road - and a very detailed inventory taken.

“It’s possible some items were already broken but others may have been damaged in removing them, if they were attached to the tree for instance.”

He agreed that the situation might have been handled more sensitively but added, “I had considered leaving things as they were until after Christmas but the scale of the memorial was getting out of hand and I wasn’t prepared to risk another accident there.”

Mr Keeble said he would call the family to apologise and to let them know that the items taken from the site could be collected.

But Michaela Thomas said that the idea of collecting things from the depot was ‘a joke’ when so many tbings had been damaged or destroyed.

She added, “I disagree that any of it was a distraction to motorists. What about all the houses covered in Christmas lights you see around Abergavenny?

“If they had asked us to remove things we would have. But all of Abergavenny know it’s Jordan’s memorial and they will still keep going out there.”

• Mr Keeble has pointed out that it is against the law for any items to be placed on the highway without authority and that the ‘highway’ is defined as the road, footpath and grass verge leading up to the hedge.

A special licence would be required for anyone, such as a utility company to put equipment, apparatus etc there.

The Welsh County Surveyors Society has recently been looking at the issue of roadside memorials and is updating guidance on how highways authorities might consider requests.

Mr Keeble said MCC appreciated that some people might wish to leave flowers near the site of a fatal accident and if they contacted the highways department that would probably be allowed for a short period.

But, in the long term, they would be encouraged to consider a living memorial such as a tree or shrub planted in a safe place nearby as an alternative way to remember a loved one.